Ice cube



ICE CUBE Original Filed July 1, 1950 FEG.I

FIG.2

INVENTOR.

United States Patent ICE CUBE Carlyle M. Ashley, Fayetteville, N. Y., assignor to Carrier Corporation, Syracuse, N. Y., a corporation of Delaware Original application July 1, 1950, Serial No. 171,621. Divided and this application August 2, 1952, Serial No. 302,387

1 Claim. (Cl. 62-1) This is a divisional application of my application, Serial No. 171,621, filed July 1, 1950, and relates to a piece of ice having a particular formation.

The problem confronting both homemakers and bartenders has been to be able to cool a glass of beverage quickly. The rate of heat exchange between the ice and the beverage to be cooled is dependent upon the area that is exposed to the beverage. Thus, the greater the area the faster the cooling of the beverage. The disadvantage in the present solid ice cubes is that the rate of cooling the glass of beverage is slow due to the small area exposed to the beverage. I have solved this problem by presenting a greater area to the beverage in which the ice is immersed by providing an opening of hour glass configuration through the cubes.

The chief object of the present invention is a piece of ice so formed as to increase greatly the area thereof adapted to be placed in heat exchange relation with a liquid to be cooled, thereby decreasing the time required to cool the liquid.

Another object is to form a piece of ice so that it will cool the liquid which is to be cooled quicker than any of the present pieces of ice. Other objects of my invention will be readily perceived from the following description.

This invention relates to a piece of ice having a predetermined exterior contour and having an opening extending through the piece from one side thereof to the opposite side permitting access to the interior of the ice piece of the liquid to be cooled, the interior wall of the ice piece surrounding the opening being so formed as to provide an hour glass configuration to the opening.

The term cube is employed herein to define a small piece of ice of any desired geometrical configuration and is not limited to a piece of ice of specific geometrical contour.

The attached drawing illustrates a preferred embodiment of my invention, in which M ICC Figure 1 is a sectional view of an ice cube of the present invention; and

Figure 2 is an isometric view of the ice cube of the present invention.

Referring to the drawing, there is shown a transparent piece of ice designed for rapid cooling of the liquid in which it is placed. The cube 2 may be of any desired shape and has a circular opening 3 extending therethrough from one side of the cube to its opposite side to provide access to the interior of the cube for the liquid being cooled. The interior walls 4 of the cube 2 are so formed as to provide an hour glass configuration to the opening; in other words, when viewed in section the interior walls of the cube form opposite opening parabo as.

If desired, the piece of ice may be formed in a mold such as sectional molds. Preferably, the present invention is formed by the machine shown and claimed in my co-pending application, Serial No. 171,621, filed July 1, 1950 to which reference is made for a complete description.

The present invention has the advantage of providing a greater surface to the liquid that is to be cooled than the ordinary solid cubes or cubes having a cylindrical opening therethrough. This particular configuration enables the liquid to be cooled more quickly.

While I have described a preferred embodiment of my invention, it will be understood my invention is not limited thereto since it may be otherwise embodied within the scope of the following claim.

I claim:

A transparent piece of ice having a predetermined exterior contour and having an opening extending through the piece from one side thereof to the opposite side permitting access to the interior of the piece of a liquid to be cooled, the interior wall of the piece tapering inward from the opposite sides thereof to the approximate center of the piece so that, when viewed in section, the intelrior walls of the piece form oppositely opening parabo as.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,145,773 Muffly Jan. 31, 1939 2,221,212 Wussow et a1 Nov. 12, 1940 2,537,915 Roop Ian. 9, 1951 2,569,113 Munshower Sept. 25, 1951 2,571,506 Watt Jan. 16, 1951 2,595,588 Lee et a1. May 6, 1952 

